Entering Cornell as Connecticut’s top cross country and track runner, Cara Costich continued to execute impressive performances on Cornell’s cross country team. During a phenomenal freshman year, Costich ran during all three seasons and then displayed a solid trend of improvement through her sophomore year. Placing in the team’s top seven, Costich achieved her personal records at indoor and outdoor ECAC championships during her sophomore year and placed seventh overall at the Yellowjacket Invitational during her junior year. Now entering her senior year, Cara elaborates on her favorite memories, goals for the year and a slew of interesting facts about athletics, life and team bonding.
As her fourth year running on the team, Cara said that she cherishes a countless number of great memories. After a difficult decision process, she described the most memorable — by a close margin — as the Ivy Championship last year at Princeton. The Red, now ranked 30th in the nation, won the championship last year and sets out again this year to take home the title.
“Just seeing everyone come together, put everything out there and get so pumped for the race and accomplish a goal like that in not so great weather was a really great experience,” Costich said. “We won the Ivy championship by such a close margin over Columbia. We went out there wanting to work our hardest and we gave it our all.”
In addition to her involvement on the cross country team, Costich serves on the Student-Athlete Advisory Council, an alliance that connects student athletes. Costich said that it is great hearing what other athletes are doing and being involved in the greater athletic community in general.
During free time, Costich enjoys hanging out with friends, traveling to beautiful cities such as Paris and watching movies, especially romantic countries. Her favorite movies include When Harry Met Sally, Sweet Home Alabama, and A Good Year.” In the cross-country realm, Costich greatly appreciates the movie Without Limits, and loves watching races on TV.
“I especially enjoyed watching and cheering for Morgan Uceny ’07 during the Olympics this past summer.”
Costich described Uceny as a prime example of someone who has worked extremely hard to achieve her goal. Costich said that the fact that she ran under the Cornell cross country coaches and was a member of the team serves as a great inspiration.
To fuel up for her races, Costich begins with a peanut butter bagel as her pre-race breakfast or lunch. After her race, Costich usually re-energizes with a chocolate chunk Luna bar. To maintain energy levels during the day, she often visits Martha’s — her favorite eatery on campus — where one of the dishes she most enjoys is the chicken pesto sandwich.
Majoring in Economics, Costich’s running and academic experiences have strongly impacted one another. She explained that studying economics has taught her to look at experiences in a rational and methodological way. Costich experienced some injuries junior year, and described that viewing these obstacles as an economist helped her efficiently alter training methods to achieve her goals.
After graduation, Costich anticipates working in investment banking or consulting, while continuing to run in road races regardless of her location or occupation.
Costich articulates a strong sense of team and togetherness, and says that her favorite part of being on the team is interacting with a great group of individuals who are always working their hardest to reach their full potential.
“I love being on a team that consists of a group of girls that are such a great team of individuals,” she said. “They’re my best friends at this school. Everyone works really hard, and the team is always there for you.”
Senior Suzana Markolovic articulated the strong team bonding that ensues over the course of the season. Markolovic said that the men’s and women’s cross country teams experienced great bonding while giving back to the community at Ithaca 5 and 10 last weekend, a road race that the teams help execute every year.
“It was a great team bonding experience,” she said. “We had to work together to make sure the runners, who are the officials who implement our meets, were safe. It was really fun because we were able to give back to the community.”
Markolovic also had warm words for Costich on a more personal leve.
“Cara is one of my best friends so I’m always excited to see her at practice,” Markolovic said. “She’s really supportive of me and always interested in how my workouts are going and how I’m doing and such.”
The team has set high goals and expectations for this year’s national performance.
“I feel like a team goal is to perform really well at a national level,” Markolovic said. “Last year we missed making the national meet by a very small amount, and the goal is to make it and perform our best at the national meet.”
Original Author: Tina Ahmadi